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England fast bowler James Kirtley had his involvement in the NatWest Series ended when he suffered a hand injury during a training session at Old Trafford prior to the match against Sri Lanka. He will be out for between four and six weeks after suffering a dislocation to his right hand when attempting to take a return catch from Jeremy Snape in the nets.He was taken to hospital for an x-ray that revealed the damage that brings another halt to Kirtley’s international career after he had played in all England’s matches in this series. He had just back into the side after having remedial coaching on his bowling action after being reported during England’s tour of Zimbabwe last winter.England will not call up a replacement at this stage, thereby opening the way for Alex Tudor to have his first game or giving Matthew Hoggard another chance after his mauling at the hands of the Sri Lankans at Headingley.

Darryl Foster, Sri Lanka’s bowling coach, has resigned following the refusal of the Board of Control for Sri Lanka (BCCSL) to assist him with the payment of emergency travel expenses.Foster was told by the BCCSL on Friday that they would not help Foster offset the costs of his emergency trip back to Australia, a trip necessitated by a life threatening illness to his grandson, against future travelling expenses or an existing BCCSL airline ticket which could have been refunded.Foster, who helped save Muttiah Muralitharan’s career when he proved that the off-spinner bowled with a permanently locked elbow due to a congenital deformity, said that he was “extremely disappointed by the BCCSL’s attitude and the fact that they choose to pass comment on it during the course of a Test match.”He has decided to severe all links with Sri Lanka’s cricket board, including his consultancy role within the BCCSL’s Fast Bowling Unit, an academy that has been instrumental in the emergence of Dilhara Fernando amongst others.Foster had also been working with Ruchira Perera, who was reported in the first npower Test match at Lords for having a suspect action.Foster will leave the team immediately after the conclusion of the final Test at Old Trafford and return to Western Australia.

Trent Boult will not be available for the second Test against South Africa with his lack of recent bowling deemed to be put him at too great of an injury risk.It means Boult has likely played his last home international cricket of the season with those having IPL deals expected to be unavailable for the ODI series against Netherlands at the end of March.Boult was not in the squad for the opening match of the series in Christchurch as his wife awaited the birth of their third child and though he will join team-mates to bowl in the nets around the second Test it was felt too much of an ask to put him through a game.Related

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“[He] is not in a position to be available with his loads and where he’s at,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “Since his wife has been having the baby he’s missed out on a lot of opportunities to play cricket and bowl. We just felt the risk of him playing was far too great at the moment.”New Zealand have retained an unchanged 15-player squad for the second Test which means no place for a specialist spinner. Ajaz Patel has yet to return to Plunket Shield action after injury and Stead did not expect conditions to alter much from the first Test where New Zealand’s quicks dominated by bowling out South Africa for 95 and 111. Allrounder Rachin Ravindra is part of the squad should a spin-bowling option be required.”We considered a [frontline] spin option but didn’t feel as though we needed it on this pitch, through history and the way it was looking after the last Test match,” Stead said.The absence of Boult and lack of changes to the squad means the same four-strong pace attack that dismantled South Africa first time around are set to get another chance together. Matt Henry was the leading light with a career-best 7 for 23 as part of a nine-wicket match haul.”He’s always been a good bowler and sometimes you need that opportunity to strike and make the most it,” Stead said. “He bowled beautifully throughout the Test but I thought the whole bowling unit bowled really well together and thought that was one of the reasons we were so convincing.”

Annabel Sutherland wasn’t sure she would get another over after being taken for two sixes as England put themselves in a position to win the Ashes Test in Canberra, but she repaid the faith shown by captain Meg Lanning to help Australia escape with a draw – and get within a wicket of the victory themselves.Sutherland’s first over back as the Test built to its thrilling conclusion was taken for 16 runs which included Sophia Dunkley twice clearing the ropes. The final 10 overs began with England needing 45 with seven wickets in hand, but Sutherland implemented a change of tactics, leaning on the advice of Lanning and Ellyse Perry, by going around the wicket and her next over cost just one.”I was a bit surprised to get thrown the ball again after that over, but was happy to play my role,” Sutherland said. “We changed our tactics a little bit, coming round the wicket and trying to target the leg stump, which seemed to work.”Related

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When legspinner Alana King also conceded just a single the pressure started to build on England. In a game-changing moment, Nat Sciver pulled Sutherland to square leg and an over later, Amy Jones was taken at deep midwicket. After the match, Lanning said she had considered taking Sutherland off to introduce a fresh bowler, but the allrounder insisted she was able to continue and would finish with a pressure-filled six-over spell.”I thought Annabel Sutherland and Alana’s efforts were amazing really,” Lanning said. “Especially Annabel just running in. She didn’t bowl badly in that over, and Sophia was going really hard at her.”But throughout the whole Test match, she has been someone who I feel like I can rely on. To do that under so much pressure, it’s pretty impressive.”Sutherland, playing her second Test of the season after debuting against India, had also impressed in the first innings and her 34 overs across the match were comfortably the most by any of the Australia seamers.”I was pretty pumped. Had a fair bit of adrenalin I reckon, but it was so much fun,” she said of the dramatic conclusion. “There’s no place I’d rather be than charging in trying to do a job to almost get a win.”I feel like I’ve always wanted to be able to take an opportunity when it’s thrown at me. The nature of this Australian team is that it doesn’t happen that often because of the depth we’ve got. Being able to take that role and do my job, I feel like I’ve been ready to do that for the last year or so, but certainly take a lot of confidence from the role I was able to play.”With the points split for the drawn Test in the multi-format series, it means Australia need to win just one of the ODIs to retain the Ashes while England need to take them 3-0 with the first match a day-nighter in Canberra on Thursday.”We’ve had a lot of success in one-day cricket over the last two years,” Sutherland said. “We are pretty confident that our cricket can get the job done.”

Injuries to Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill and Axar Patel have forced the Indian selectors to deal with some big questions ahead of the upcoming Test and ODI tour of South Africa. ESPNcricinfo has learnt that all the three players are likely to miss the entire tour.Jadeja, India’s first-choice spinner outside the subcontinent of late, was ruled out of the second Test against New Zealand in Mumbai because of what the BCCI had said was swollen right forearm. Though Jadeja was present in Mumbai with the team, it is understood that he could be out of action for a long period.If Jadeja does miss the South Africa tour, as is likely, it will be his second injury-enforced layoff this year. He had broken his left thumb during the Test series in Australia in January and had to miss the final Test in Brisbane as well as the entire home series against England.As for Gill, he was ruled out of India’s Test series in England in the summer after suffering a stress injury to one of his shins. Gill, who played the two Tests against New Zealand at home recently, sat out a few sessions of play in the second Test after first getting hit in the arm and then the finger.With question marks over Ajinkya Rahane’s future in the Indian middle order, Gill has been spoken of in some circles as a potential alternative.If he can’t make the cut for South Africa, it could open things up for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, who has just made a big start to his Test career, or Hanuma Vihari, who is currently on tour in South Africa with India A. Suryakumar Yadav, who was added to the India Test squad for the games against New Zealand but couldn’t get a look-in, could also get lucky in case Gill isn’t available.The exact nature of Axar’s problem could not be ascertained, though unconfirmed reports suggest it is a stress-related injury.Axar is India’s third-choice spinner behind R Ashwin and Jadeja, and if he can’t make it, and Jadeja isn’t fit either, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem or Saurabh Kumar could be in the mix.Nadeem, who played the last of his two Tests in Chennai against England in February this year, has not been on the selectors’ radar since, while Jayant was the preferred third spinner against New Zealand, and put in a strong performance in the second Test, when he picked up 4 for 49 in the second innings. Nadeem, however, could be in favour since he is a left-arm spinner, like Jadeja and Axar.Saurabh is the wildcard in the race. The 28-year-old left-arm spinner has never really been close to a national call-up before but has excellent first-class numbers: 194 wickets from 45 matches – mainly for Uttar Pradesh in the Indian domestic circuit – at an average of 23.80. He is also currently on tour in South Africa with India A.

AB de Villiers hopes to use the three T20s against England to thoroughly banish memories of the Champions Trophy exit and the resultant analysis of his leadership and lack of runs. De Villiers will captain a fairly inexperienced squad, which includes nine players from the failed Champions Trophy campaign but is without several seniors who are being rested before the Test, and he hopes they can use the matches to find a rhythm South Africa have lacked on this tour.”It was a tough few days after the Champions Trophy, to go through that phase of reflecting and to hear some of the criticism. It’s never easy but I have always been the kind of guy to see the positive in that and see opportunity to improve. These three matches give me that opportunity as a player and as a captain for the team,” de Villiers said. “I don’t feel like I need to prove anyone wrong or prove something to someone. I just want to go play. I feel like a youngster starting my career again. I am really full of energy and love playing. I just want to score some runs again and captain the team to a few good wins.”With a total of 20 runs from his three innings in the Champions Trophy, on the back of a quiet IPL, it’s fair to say de Villiers had a lean run but he insisted he is in good touch and simply a victim of poor luck. “I feel like I am playing very well. I had a couple of bad dismissals in those two games. The first game I tried to take it on a bit. The second game I don’t know how the ball went up in the air like that. The third game I felt like I was going to get 200 off 5 balls so I got run out. There’s nothing wrong with my form. The results are not showing.”Neither are they showing for South Africa. They arrived in England on a high following a successful 2016-17 season, in which they won eight trophies including three fifty-over series and sat at No.1 on the ODI rankings but are empty-handed. They lost their three-match ODI series to England and crashed out of the Champions Trophy in the first round, adding to a trove of major tournament misery.This time, de Villiers is taking a different approach to his reaction. Instead of dwelling on the disappointment, he is determined to get over it as quickly as possible.”I am past that stage of really harping on it for a very long time. The difficult part is the criticism all around, just hearing the negative stuff all the time but I am past nagging about losing games of cricket because that happens. It’s happened quite a few times,” de Villiers said. “I am not going to look into that too much. I am ready to move on. I know I am still a good player, I know the team can still achieve amazing things and it’s important for me not to think about what happened in the past. I am not going to spend too much energy thinking about the last 10 or 12 tournaments I have played in.”But he is still devoting time to thinking about the one tournament he does want to play in: the 2019 World Cup. In an effort to remain fit and focused, de Villiers has opted out of Test cricket for the rest of the year – and he has hinted it may be longer than that – which has earned the ire of some former players. Both Ashwell Prince and Herschelle Gibbs commented that players should not be allowed to dictate their availability to the national board but de Villiers claims that is not what he is doing.”It’s never been about managing my workload. It’s more about prioritising certain things that I still want to achieve. I’ve never been picking and choosing my games,” he said. “It’s making sure I am in the best form for that 2019 World Cup. That’s the goal. I have to regroup with CSA when I get back home. The new season will be starting and I have to see how I fit in and move forward from there.”De Villiers will be part of the new Global T20 League, as the marquee player for the Pretoria franchise. The competition will run across November and December, preceding a yet-to-be-confirmed series against India that will feature four Tests. It was initially de Villiers’ aim to play in those Tests but it remains to be seen if he does, especially as his own recent statements are more aligned with shorter formats, 50-over particularly.Despite South Africa’s premature end to the Champions Trophy, with the World Cup to be played in the same place, de Villiers believes they were taught lessons they could help them in future. “We learnt a lot of things. Pakistan surprised all of us. The way they controlled the middle overs, especially with the ball in hand. From the mental point of view, it shows that any team can come out on top on the day,” he said. “We made a few notes – mental notes which we will use coming back in 2019. I hope I will be part of that. That’s the plan.”

Abahani Limited landed an important blow in their title defense after they crushed Prime Doleshwar Sporting Club by seven wickets. With Gazi Group Cricketers’ match against Prime Bank Cricket Club halted due to rain, Abahani are now the tournament’s sole leaders with just two matches left.At the BKSP-3 ground in Savar, Doleshwar were restricted to 189-9 in 50 overs with seamer Abu Jayed picking up three wickets while Mohammad Saifuddin and Manan Sharma collected two wickets each. Marshall Ayub top scored for Doleshwar, making 57 off 83 balls but with just a single boundary. In fact there were only six fours and two sixes in the whole innings.Later, Saif Hassan and Shadman Islam added 132 runs for the second wicket to steer Abahani’s chase. Saif made 80 off 97 balls with nine fours and two sixes while Shadman struck four boundaries and a six in his 78-ball 65.Mohammedan Sporting Club outplayed Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club to complete a five-wicket win at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Batting first, Dhanmondi Club were cleaned up in 45 overs for 197, courtesy regular dismissals from Taijul Islam, Subashis Roy and Sajedul Islam. Dhanmondi’s only notable contributor was Ziaur Rahman who slammed his third List-A century, that included nine sixes and six fours. He however found little support from the other batsmen except Elias Sunny with whom Ziaur added 77 runs for the sixth wicket. Ziaur finally fell in the 39th over, having made 103 off 85 balls.Mohammedan then got off to a superb start when their openers Shamsur Rahman and Shykat Ali added 86 runs in just 13 overs. They lost four further wickets but completed the chase in 30.2 overs with Bipul Sharma slamming four sixes and two fours in his 19-ball 38.Meanwhile, the match between Gazi Group Cricketers and Prime Bank Cricket Club has now been shifted to Tuesday after rain spoilt the originally scheduled match day at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium. The rain was due to the effects of Cyclone Mora that has developed over Bay of Bengal.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:21